Spotlight & Giveaway: Boss Witch by Ann Aguirre

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Ann Aguirre to HJ!

Hi Ann and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Boss Witch!

 
Hello, dear readers.
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

The bossiest witch in town tries to run a game on a witch hunter as a distraction to protect her coven sisters and winds up fighting a forbidden love.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

CLEMENTINE WATERHOUSE HAD BEEN FIXING problems for as long as she could remember.

As a kid, when she heard her mother, Allegra, sobbing, she’d be the one to magic up a cup of tea after the latest knockdown, drag-out fight that ended with furniture broken and her
bio dad, Barnabas Balfour, abandoning them. Again. Somehow, that pattern continued with her cousin. Clem was the one who ended up sweeping up the wreckage and trying to piece together whatever was broken.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Features a stubborn bi witch who has a hard time accepting help
• And a witch hunter who hates his life
• There’s a pet mouse
• Senior citizens play an important role
• And It’s enemies to lovers that still somehow feels like a warm hug

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Clem is a tough person, who doesn’t let herself become vulnerable easily, even though she doesn’t look tough whereas with Gavin, it’s the opposite. He looks mean and dangerous, but he’s quite soft on the inside. So I’d say, they’re both quite different than they appear, and they’re attracted to each other when they realize that.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Forbidden, longing, risky, dangerous, hopeful.
 

The First Kiss…

It’s hot. *fans self*
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

I actually love their first meeting. Clem has come to a bar she knows Gavin has been hanging out at, trying to gather intel, and she makes it her mission to attract him.

Clem clocked her target in a booth near the restrooms, where
he had a good view of the whole place. The witch hunter held a
bottle of beer, glistening with condensation, but from the look of
it, he hadn’t enjoyed more than a sip or two. His posture seemed
to be relaxed, but even in her peripheral vision, she could tell that
he was watchful. He was smart to start the recon here. People got
loose in bars, with liquor greasing their wheels, and the hunter
might learn something valuable while listening to gossip.
She didn’t make the rookie mistake of appearing to notice
him, however. Instead, she sauntered to the bar and ordered an
old-fashioned.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

Definitely the scene where Gavin is at the party full of witches and Clem is afraid he’ll pick up traces of their magic.

SOMETIMES CLEM WISHED SHE COULD strangle Danica.
She’d dropped a breezy, “let’s have a party!” type message in
the coven group chat and left everyone else to sort out the details.
Since her cousin wanted to host, all the prep fell on Clem’s shoulders. Sure, I said I’d handle it, but I didn’t mean every damn thing.
Thankfully, Kerry, Priya, and Margie pitched in with the cleansing, and Ethel lent a hand with removing the wards. When the
day of the party dawned, it should be impossible to detect any
abnormalities.
Yeah, just a totally normal house party.
Full of witches. And a witch hunter

Readers should read this book …

If they enjoy enemies to lover, a sweet, forbidden love story that’s sexy and adorable and full of found family, sisterhood, and feels like a warm hug.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m revising Extra Witchy, which is Leanne and Trevor’s story, the third book in this series. I’ve also sold a fourth title, tentatively entitled The Safe House, which is set in this world in St. Claire, but not linked to these series directly.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 5 signed copies of Boss Witch. US / Canada only please.

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Excerpt from Boss Witch:

Gavin buried his face in Clem’s hair, breathing in the delicate scent
of her shampoo.
Mmm. Yes. Fantastic.
But he spoke lightly. “Nobody’s called the constable—
cops—on us yet, so I feel like we could do better.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Let me think on it. I can be a bit laddish, you know.”
“Do I even want to know what that means, English?” She
seemed to be teasing him, but sometimes he wasn’t sure with her.
I fucking love that.
“Dance with me,” he whispered, discarding the idea of trying
to make things rowdier.
The party could fend for itself. Her friends were nice enough,
the few he’d spoken with, but he hadn’t come to socialize. At some
point, he had to get clear and test the premises. He still had some
lingering doubt about her shop name, her surname, and this would
be the quickest way to clear it up. Unless he decided to follow in
his grandad’s footsteps, he still had a job to do.
“Give me five minutes. I’ll circulate and be right back.”
“That’s fine. Is there a downstairs lavatory?”
She grinned and kissed his nose. “You’re so cute. Five bucks
to call it a ‘loo.’”
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178 ANN AGUIRRE BOSS WITCH 179
“How dare you, madam. I cannot be bought. For that price.”
Clem laughed and then pointed. “Over there. Also we have a
bathroom right up the stairs if the other one’s occupied.”
“Ooh, you trust me, do you? I could have some nefarious
scheme to sneak upstairs and prowl through your underthings.”
Rising on her toes, she whispered, “You already do that when
I’m wearing them.”
Quick as that, he was hard, straining against his denims and
imagining a fast fuck, someplace close and secret. He’d love to
find out what panties she was wearing and, more importantly,
whether she was wet beneath them.
Stay focused.
He grazed a kiss across her temple and turned. The downstairs
loo was occupied, and it rather sounded like the redhead who had
dragged the bewildered blond man in here a while ago might be
devouring him alive. From his enthusiastic yelling, it didn’t appear
as if he minded. Gavin didn’t knock; they’d likely be a while.
Casually he sauntered upstairs and overheard what sounded
like another couple getting lucky. Based on his observations
downstairs, it must be the cousin and her boyfriend. With great
resolve, he resisted the urge to spy on Clem, not for any official
reasons but out of sheer bloody curiosity. What would her room
even look like?
I’ll find out when she shows me.
Gavin headed into the bathroom and locked the door behind
him. Likely he didn’t have long because someone would guzzle too
much beer and need the room, so he closed his eyes and focused,
extending his senses as he’d been taught. And—
There was a flicker.
Not strong enough for him to accuse anyone, but faint and
definite. It could be a fading trace from someone who had visited,
possibly the same witch who’d been in the bakery. Dammit. I still
can’t entirely rule it out. He’d wanted to find an inert space that
offered no sparks at all, and this was worse somehow. The whole
house was vaguely suffused in a way he couldn’t explain. But it
was old energy, only trace amounts.
Maybe the witch lived here before Clem moved in?
Swearing beneath his breath, he used the toilet while he was
up there because it never hurt to cover one’s tracks. As he stepped
out, he found one of Titus’s friends waiting for a turn. Dante, he
thought the man’s name was.
He wouldn’t win any points acting like an arse, so he greeted
the man politely. “Gavin Rhys. I don’t think we met earlier.”
“Dante. You mind?” The bloke gestured at the lavatory.
“Sorry, not at all. I’ll clear out.” His mood was considerably
more somber when he went downstairs to rejoin the party.
While he was upstairs, they’d shoved the sofa and chairs out of
the way and pulled up the rug, revealing lovely hardwood floors.
Clem was pleading with people to take off their shoes so as not to
mar the finish. Why do I find her nagging so delightful? Possibly it
was because he understood, on some level, that the requests came
from a place of deep concern. She wanted things to be just so, and
it frustrated her when she fell short of perfection.
Soon, Dante came back down, and he went for the retiring type, it seemed, because he started smooth talking the quiet
woman Clem had introduced as Margie and didn’t rest until he
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180 ANN AGUIRRE BOSS WITCH 181
got her to dance with him. The oldest lady at the party had a wild
streak and gods above, could she drink. Gavin decided he didn’t
give a damn about the elusive witch he was starting to think might
be a figment of his imagination.
He headed straight for Clem. She’d moved on once everyone kicked off their shoes, dancing in their socks like some fifties
film, and now she was in the kitchen, stacking dishes into the
dishwasher. From what he’d seen, she hadn’t relaxed for a second
tonight, laser focused on everyone else’s good time.
While her cousin gets lucky upstairs. That didn’t sit right with
him, not even slightly.
“Come here,” he said huskily.
He picked her up and perched her on the kitchen island,
framing her hips in his hands. Now they were on eye level, and he
could see how fretful she was, how unable to relax. Gently, like
she might bite him, he set his hands on her shoulders and kneaded
away the tension. At first she mumbled a few protests, and he
sensed the moment when her intent to resist melted. She tipped
her face up and closed her eyes, soft and warm beneath his hands.
The kiss, it was inevitable. He didn’t give a damn who was
watching or what they thought. This moment belonged to the two
of them, and when he touched his mouth to hers, even the music
faded away. She tasted sharply of lemon from whatever she’d been
drinking, and he kissed her until her tongue went from tart to
sweet, slipping into his mouth again and again. He pulled her to
him, lost in her heat. She wrapped her arms around him, her legs
too, until they were a tangled fusion of need

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The second in an adorable witchy rom-com series by New York Times bestselling author Ann Aguirre, perfect for fans of:

Ride-or-die female friendships
A bisexual heroine who stubbornly refuses to accept help
A hero with an incredibly pesky moral conscience
A mouse named Benson who may or may not have all the answers to life, magic, and love (Spoiler: he does!)
Clementine Waterhouse is a perfectly logical witch. She doesn’t tumble headlong into love. Rather she weighs the pros and cons and decides if a relationship is worth pursuing. At least that’s always been her modus operandi before. Clem prefers being the one in charge, always the first to walk away when the time is right. Attraction has never struck her like lightning.

Until the witch hunter comes to town.

Gavin Rhys hates being a witch hunter, but his family honor is on the line, and he needs to prove he’s nothing like his grandfather, a traitor who let everyone down. But things in St. Claire aren’t what they seem, and Gavin is distracted from the job immediately by a bewitching brunette with a sexy smile and haunting secrets in her eyes.

Can the bossiest witch in town find a happy ending with the last person she should ever love?
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ann Aguirre has been a clown, a clerk, a savior of stray kittens, and a voice actress, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in Mexico with her family. She writes all kinds of genre fiction, but she has an eternal soft spot for a happily ever after.
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